Rodney Reed

Rodney Reed (born December 22, 1967) is a Texas Death Row inmate. Rodney Reed, from Bastrop County, Texas, is currently on death row for the 1996 murder of Stacey Stites, 19, who was engaged to Officer Jimmy Fennell at the time of her murder. His execution date had been set for January 14, 2015. At the request of the state, the scheduled execution date had been moved to March 5, 2015. On February 23, 2015 the execution was stayed indefinitely by Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

Conviction

The state's case against Reed, who has maintained his innocence since his arrest for the crime, relied on a single piece of physical evidence: semen matched to Reed, found in Stites' body; but multitudes of unreliable circumstantial evidence.

Reed initially denied knowing Stites at all because he feared the racist beliefs that most in the town held dear, including among the police force. Many voiced their disbelief that a white woman would willingly have sex with a black man and ruin her life because of it. Unfortunately, majority of the citizens on his jury also held racist beliefs and expressed the same disbelief that a white woman, especially one who had a known racist fiancee, would willingly have sex with a black man and ruin her life. [citation needed]

During his trial, Reed explained that he was in a consensual relationship with and had sex with Stites, intermittently, for 4 to 5 months before her death. Citizens in the racist town were very open with their disgust regarding this statement. Reed testified he had sex with Stites during the early hours of April 22, a full day before her murder. According to the Magistrate, "Most of [Reed's] witnesses did not know Stacey Stites, and identified her from memory by viewing her photograph. Reed had already claimed that he was protecting her by not introducing her to his associates, friends and family (who were all African American) because of what the white citizens in the town would have done to her if she happened to be spotted with African Americans. The prosecution tried to downplay the rampant racism in the town that the murder occurred in.

Travis County Medical Examiner Dr. Roberto Bayardo testified during the original trial that the recovered semen had been deposited recently, thus contradicting Reed's testimony. In August 2012, Bayardo admitted by affidavit his trial testimony(that the recovered semen had been deposited recently)was inaccurate, that he, in fact, didn't know the age of the semen or when it was deposited in Stacey. Multiple courts unbelievably found Dr. Bayardo's affidavit "largely bereft of scientific evidence" even though his original testimony was also "largely bereft of scientific evidence".[1]

Reed's defense team pose an alternative theory. They claim Fennell found out about Stacey and Rodney, and then he murdered Stites.

ONLY the fingerprints of Stacey Stites and Jimmy Fennell were on Stacey and the truck. Reed's, even though he was accused of murdering and raping her were no where to be found on Stacey's body or her truck. Other forensic evidence of Reed was also not found. No sweat, pubic hair or hair from his body was found.

DPS unbelievably returned the truck TO Fennell six days after the murder, after DPS completed processing it. Even in 1996, this was not a practice police practiced. Right after being given the truck back from DPS, Fennell sold the truck to a dealership, for no known reason.

There also were absolutely no witnesses who could place Reed near the crime scene at the time the Prosecution alleged it had occurred.

Jimmy and Stacey's shared apartment was not one time searched, even when Fennell was a suspect. Fennell was never treated as other murder suspects are treated. He was only talked to on several occasions. Not actually put through the typical interrogation a murder suspect would experience. He was treated as a "good 'ol boy" during these talks, by his fellow police officers that he served with. A sperm sample excluded Fennell as the donor of the semen(but testimony indicated that it should have been Reed's sperm as he had sex with her in the early morning hours on the 22nd).

Even with more physical evidence to support Fennell's involvement than to support Reed's involvement in the crime, authorities, whom Fennell worked with, eventually eliminated him as a suspect.

Mary Blackwell, a police officer in the Dallas area, was a member of the same police academy class as Fennell. She told the court that Fennell remarked to several class members he would kill his girlfriend by strangling her if she cheated on him. When asked how he would make sure his fingerprints could not be lifted from her neck, Blackwell testified that Fennell said he would use a belt.[2] Stites was found strangled with a belt. She later stated that she had withheld this information until trial because she feared for her own safety and how her fellow officers would retaliate against her being that police officers within the town's police force were lying about not having seen Fennell on the night before Stites was found murdered.

In 2008, without his prior fellow officers ability to help him, Officer Jimmy Fennell pleaded guilty to kidnapping and sexual misconduct in an unrelated incident that took place in 2007.

The incident occurred when he was on duty. He pulled the victim over for a traffic stop, unnecessarily handcuffed the victim and put her into the backseat of his patrol car where he proceeded to assault the defenseless victim.

He was originally charged with raping his victim but pleaded Guilty to a lesser charge. The victim in that case has spoken out against Officer Jimmy Fennell and questioned Reed's guilt.[3]

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected those arguments and ruled on January 10, 2014 that Reed's claim of innocence still lacked credibility even with all the evidence saying otherwise.[4] Reed was scheduled for a sentencing hearing on July 14, 2014 appearing in Bastrop, Texas before Visiting Judge Douglas Shaver.[5] Reed's conviction and death sentence remain highly controversial for many obvious reasons.

On February 23, 2015, a Texas Appeals Court announced that they had postponed Rodney Reed's execution, originally scheduled for January 14, 2015, for the 1996 murder of Stacey Stites, after his attorneys filed a petition citing the existence of new "scientific evidence" that establishes his "probable innocence."[6] It includes findings from three different forensic scientists proving that evidence shows Reed could not have been the person who killed Stites.

Reed's defense attorney says their new evidence shows she was killed hours earlier, the night before (on April 22, 1996) instead of at 3:00 a.m. on April 23, 1996.[7]
The court put Reed's execution on indefinite hold pending review of this new evidence.

Bryce Benjet, an Innocence Project attorney is currently (2017) representing Reed. He presented new evidence during Reed's writ of habeas corpus hearing that started on October 10, 2017 and lasted for four days.

Benjet presented an interview with Fennell's best friend, Curtis Davis, who is a Bastrop County Sheriff's investigator. The interview is from the TV show "Death Row Stories" and was videotaped in 2016. He also stated the same things in an interview with CNN.

Davis's interviews completely contradicted Fennell's alibi that he was at home with Stites on April 22, 1996.

According to Davis, Fennell told him on April 23, 1996 before Stites body was found but after she was known to be missing, that he had been out drinking with several fellow police officers and got home late. Likely, 10pm or 11pm, after his fiancee had already gone to bed.

Reed's legal team also submitted substantial forensic evidence showing that Stites was murdered hours before the State believes she was and also that her body had been moved after her death and placed where she was found.[8]

During Reed's writ of habeas corpus hearing, Fennell's best friend Curtis Davis denied being able to recall his interviews on "Death Row Stories" or with CNN. He also said that it was an assumption that Fennell didn't get home until 10pm or 11pm.

Fennell declined to testify at all, even though the new evidence means that it was completely impossible for Reed to have committed the murder of Stites but that he(Fennell) would be the only suspect because of the timeline the new evidence sets up.

The judge said it will take at least 6–8 weeks for his decision. "Visiting Judge Doug Shaver's decision will be in the form of recommendations for the Court of Criminal Appeals, which has the final say on whether Reed gets a new trial in the 1996 murder of Stacey Stites."[9]

See also

References

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